False Confidence
by evelinaonline
Summary: Ben is an idiot, but so are Five and Vanya. In which Ben eats fire noodles for the first time, and his siblings can't find it in them to stop him.


**Based on an ask I got on tumblr: "Prompt idea: Ben eating Samyang/Korean Fire Noodle." aka numbers five through seven being idiots for 713 words. Hope you enjoy!**

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"I am not sure this a good idea."

Ever since Ben had come back to life, he'd been eager to try all sorts of new things out. Swimming, driving, even drinking. If you could name it, Ben would do it.

And that included trying out new foods.

Ben loved spicy food.

He'd known for years. He loved the smell, the taste, the tingling feeling it left in his mouth… They didn't have spicy things often when they were little, but when they did, Ben enjoyed it more than he would ever admit.

The only problem was that he could never handle it.

It wasn't because of his stomach—anything he ate made the horror upset—but because of literally everything else. Even with the mildest spices, his body would get cold, his hands would start to tremble, and his eyes would fill with tears. There were many times he'd cried over spicy food at dinner, and every single one he'd made his siblings worried sick.

So Ben knew Vanya was right; eating an entire bowl of fire noodles wasn't a good idea. But quite frankly? He didn't care.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Five asked, sipping his coffee. "It's not like he'll die again."

Vanya elbowed him. "Five!"

"I'll be okay," Ben said, giving the noodles a final stir. He was no chef by any means, but instant noodles were easy to make. He placed the bowl on the table, sitting across of his siblings. "At least I think so."

The three of them took a good look at the food. The noodles had picked up an orange color from the spices—hot chicken flavor—and steam was coming out of the bowl. Ben clumsily grabbed his chopsticks—he still wasn't used to using anything but a fork and a knife, as they hadn't exactly used chopsticks when they were little, and he'd been alive for only a few weeks now—and picked up some of the noodles.

"If you die—"

"He will not—"

"_If_ you die," Five interrupted Vanya. "I am not going to jail for this."

Ben rolled his eyes, and slurped some of the noodles, immediately dropping his chopsticks and shaking his hand in front of his mouth. "Hot, hot, hot—"

"I told you this wasn't a good idea," Vanya said, already reaching for towels. "Spit it out."

Ben shook his head, speaking through a mouthful of noodles. "Tempochur!"

"What?"

"Teh-mpuh-churr!"

"Temperature."

Ben pointed at Five, indicating he was right at guessing the word, and swallowed the noodles. "Temperature!"

Vanya sighed in relief, finally relaxing in her seat. "How did you survive this?"

Ben shrugged. He still felt the numbness in his mouth, and he had goose bumps all over his body, but he genuinely couldn't understand why they were called _fire _noodles. Diego's attempt at Indian food had been more successful, not to mention—

Ben coughed, suddenly feeling his throat go dry and cold at the same time.

"Ben!" Vanya exclaimed, and even Five seemed concerned.

"HOT, HOT, HOT!" Ben yelled through his coughs, frantically trying to find a glass of water. His whole body was shaking, but he couldn't actually move. For a second, he really thought he was going to die.

Five teleported to the fridge and back, with a carton of milk in hand, opening it and giving it to Ben. Ben held onto it as if his life depended on it, drinking as much of it as he could, tears running down his cheeks.

He placed the carton down when he was done, wiping his mouth with one of the towels Vanya had—he regretted doubting her—and exhaling. He'd lost a good portion of his senses, he was sure of it.

And then Five laughed.

It wasn't often that their brother broke into laughter, so both Ben and Vanya had to take a moment to process the situation, but soon enough, they were laughing too.

"You're such a moron, Ben," Five finally said, taking another sip of his coffee.

"Thanks," Ben said, reaching for his chopsticks again.

Vanya glared at him. "You're not actually going to—"

Ben smirked before eating some more noodles.

"Shit," Vanya shook her head, preparing the towels.

"I'll go get more milk."

"HOT! HOT! HOT!"

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**YOU GUYS KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE THEIR FRIENDSHIP. YOU KNOW THIS. DON'T TELL ME YOU DON'T.**

**If you liked this, hit me up on tumblr at evelinaonline! I've started school now, so even though it takes me a while to get to the prompts you guys send, they help me keep my sanity, lmao. Love you all!**


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